• ДАЛЬШЕ - БОЛЬШЕ; ДАЛЕЕ - БОЛЕЕ
[sent; these forms only; usu. used in past contexts; fixed WO]
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⇒ (usu. in refer, to sth. disagreeable) the longer a process, activity etc continues, the more intense it becomes:
- as time went on, it got (grew) worse (and worse);
- (then) it went from bad to worse;
- it went downhill from there.
♦ [Анисья:] Ничегохонько не угадывала, а у них [Акулины и Никиты] согласье уж было. [Кума:] О-о, дело-то какое! [Анисья:] Дальше - больше, вижу, от меня хорониться стали (Толстой 1). [A.:] It never occurred to me that there might already have been an understanding between them [Akulina and Nikita]. [K.:] Oh, dear, what a disgraceful business! [A.:] And as time went on, it got worse and worse, and they began to hide from me (lc).
♦ Ворюга [Федька], повадки волчьи. А началось всё с пустяков - с кочешка капусты, с репки, с горстки зерна, которые он начал припрятывать от семьи. Потом дальше - больше: в чужой рот полез (Абрамов 1). [context transl] Не [Fedka] was a crook - greedy as a wolf. It began with piddling little stuif: a head of cabbage, a turnip, or a handful of grain that he hid from the rest of the family. And it took off from there, until he was stealing the food out of everyone else's mouth (1a).
Большой русско-английский фразеологический словарь. — М.: ACT-ПРЕСС КНИГА. С.И. Лубенская. 2004.